Hastily drafted amendments to the federal Navigable Waters Protection Act will undermine environmental protection of Canada’s waterways and threaten the fish and wildlife that depending on them, according to recent testimony before the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources.The Navigable Waters Act is often the only “trigger” for an assessment of a project in or around a stream — such as a run of river hydro project — and environmental groups including ... Read More …

The Vancouver Public Library’s excellent Man in the Moon program started up again a few weeks ago at branches across the city. Man in the Moon is a free storytime and sing-a-long program for infants and their male caregivers (mostly dads, but grand-dads, uncles, etc. are also welcome).
I participated in my first Man in the Moon program last fall at the Britannia branch and it was a lot of fun. It was great to ... Read More …

Vandalism costs in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school district are approaching $700,000 this year, says a story in the Maple Ridge Times.
“It’s really disheartening,” Kathie Ward, board of education chair, is quoted as saying. “What more can we do to these buildings?”
The school district has spent almost $54,000 just to replace broken windows at its 22 elementary schools this year, the Times says.
While some schools leave lights on ... Read More …

I am heading out to Abbotsford to hear what the chief has to say with regard to the murders of four youth linked to the drug trade in just five weeks. Hopefully there will be some positive suggestions offered up for escaping the life before it is too late.
Abbotsford – May 13, 2009.
Abbotsford Police Chief Rich will make an announcement concerning the safety of gang involved youth in Abbotsford tomorrow morning.... Read More …

Vancouver’s Next Level Games is getting set for the release of Punch-Out!! for the Wii.
It launches this Monday, May 18 and a preview attracted players at this week’s Game Developers Conference Canada.
I stopped by to take a look and talked to Next Level producer Ken Yeeloy about the release.... Read More …

Those CF-18 jets shadowing a passenger jet around the Metro Vancouver area Thursday may be just part of a training and identification exercise for the 2010 Winter Olympics.But the first thing that we’ve learned from the exercise, being conducted by NORAD, NAV Canada and the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit is that someone’s communications skills suck.Late on Wednesday NORAD’s 1 Canadian Air Division/Canadian NORAD Region sent out a useful news advisory saying ... Read More …

It was great to see Vancouver game studios recruiting this week at the first ever Game Developers Conference Canada.
The industry here has been hard hit by the economic downturn and a lot of talented people lost their jobs. But there was some good news for attendees at GDC Canada, part of Vancouver Digital Week as companies showed up looking to hire.
I wrote a story on that, you can find it here.... Read More …

What is a photograph?Although most people believe a photograph is a duplicate of the visible world, it isn’t. First of all and most obviously, a photograph is a two dimensional abstraction of three dimensions. At best, the photographic image is a resemblance of the visible rather than an exact copy.Vision is often compared to a photographic image but we really don’t see like a camera taking photographs that are stored in the brain ... Read More …

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has declared today Annual Gas Tax Honesty Day as a pitch to have the federal government spend on road infrastructure the same amount it collects from consumers in fuel taxes.The CTF suggests the feds cut federal gas taxes in order to more honestly reflect the amount it spends on roads and bridges.I would tend to agree with CTF sentiment that it’s not appropriate for the feds to use gas ... Read More …

The Duhre brothers used to be as notorious as the Bacons, getting shot at across Metro Vancouver. Their Fleetwood home in Surrey was regularly targeted by gunmen. They drove around in armoured vehicles. And they faced their fair share of charges.
After Balraj Duhre was shot and wounded in the fall of October 2005 in a Hasting Street restaurant, the three brothers and their parents disappeared and were rumoured to be living in Ontario. But ... Read More …

Despite the extraordinary number of new homicide cases across Metro Vancouver in recent months, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has been making progress in clearing some of the files.
Just days after announcing charges against two gangsters in the slaying of Kyle Barber in March, IHIT said Wednesday it had laid a second-degree murder charge in the savage killing of Surrey man last summer.
The man’s sometime room-mate, Ernest Allan Hosack, was charged with killing ... Read More …

I won’t be putting up any new postings for a few weeks as I’ve gone to Italy for a much needed vacation. I’ll be visiting Villa d’Este in Tivoli, outside Rome, the Gardens of Augustus in Capri, a couple of gardens in Ravello on the Amalfi coast, and Orto botanico Pietro Castelli in Messina, Sicily.
If this sounds exciting, well, you can come, too, later this year. In a couple of weeks, there’ll be an annnoucement about a ... Read More …

Naked came the ad: The relentless commercialization of sexuality undermines morality Vancouver Sun ARCHIVES: Friday, January 5, 2001 Byline: Douglas Todd
{Read a related May, 2009 posting here.}
Political correctness now dictates that we must favour virtually all forms of sexuality. So it’s necessary to start this off on the defensive, by affirming I like the erotic as much or more than the next person. And I think children should be gently exposed to ... Read More …

The debate in New Westminster over conflict of interest is spreading, due to an Ontario court decision that has toughened the rules for school trustees. (Read a Toronto Sun column about the decision.)
Judith Clark, the B.C. School Trustees’ Association (BCSTA) lawyer, sent an email recently to trustees, superintendents and secretary-treasurers province-wide about the ruling and its ramifications. The association refused to give me a copy because it contains “confidential legal advice.”
This Toronto ... Read More …

I’m wondering how many Canadians will be tempted to call up family members or friends who live in the U.S. and ask them to buy tickets in Thursday’s gold-rush sale by CoSport.As you may know, the Vancouver Organizing Committee has a lock on ticket sales to Canadians and it forbids its partners in other countries from selling directly to us.But that doesn’t prevent your brother Joe in Dallas or your friend Sarah ... Read More …

This column in The Vancouver Sun was part of a package of advice to welcome Premier Gordon Campbell to his third term.
Dear Premier: Thanks for seeking my humble advice. As always, I’m delighted to serve in any way I can.
All the polls going into the election showed that one issue — the economy — was top of mind for voters.
So it was fascinating to watch how concerns usually filed under the other ... Read More …

Carbon taxes make strange bedfellows. The Pembina Institute and the British Columbia Liberal government diverge on a lot of issues but the Liberals’ return to power in Tuesday’s election drew only warm words of congratulation.
Pembina director of B.C. energy solutions Matt Horne offered these words as Premier Gordon Campbell, who has introduced North America’s first carbon tax on consumer use of fossil fuels, prepared for his third term.
“With progressive measures like the first ... Read More …

Some time this year, the number of personal computers in the world will top 1-billion, according to the International Energy Agency.
Add those to about 2-billion televisions and the cell phones now used by half the global population and the energy they use is increasingly driving demand. They already account for about 15 per cent of household power consumption, according to the IEA.
Some of these devices are a lot more efficient than others, the ... Read More …

Occasionally I write about fish.
Canada’s Environment Commissioner took a look at the controversial issue of Fraser River gravel removal in his annual report released this week, and confirmed that there are no demonstrable benefits — and enormous risks to salmon — associated with this controversial practice which both the federal and provincial governments allow.
In particular, the commissioner concurred with critics including British Columbia Institute of Technology fisheries program director Mark Angelo and former BC government ... Read More …